Why We Won't be Eating Bugs in the Future

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SOURCES CITED:
[1] Huis, Arnold & Van Itterbeeck, Joost & Klunder, Harmke & Mertens, Esther & Halloran, Afton & Muir, Giulia & Vantomme, Paul. (2013). EDIBLE INSECTS future prospects fo food and feed security.
[2] (2006) Livestock's Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Options. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Rome.
[3] Gerber, P.J., Steinfeld, H., Henderson, B., Mottet, A., Opio, C., Dijkman, J., Falcucci, A. & Tempio, G.
2013. Tackling climate change through livestock – A global assessment of emissions and mitigation
opportunities. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Rome

FERTILIZER CALCULATIONS:
INSECTS:
2500lbs of crickets should have 1500lbs of protein in it (assuming 60% protein when dry)
so 1500 lbs of protein for every 2000lbs dry fertilizer, or a 3/4 ratio

COWS:
According to the Journal of Dairy Science, about 85% of this manure is water, so they make 11.25lbs of dry weight manure a day.
A cow produces approx. 440lbs of beef, about 25% of which is protein, so 110lbs of protein in a lifetime
110lbs of protein over 36 months = 3.0555 lbs of protein a month, or about 0.10185185 lbs of protein a day
So in a day, a cow produces 11.25lbs of dry manure a day, and 0.10185185 lbs of protein a day

Comparing these ratios of dry weight manure to protein we get:
COWS: 11.25 / 0.10185185 = 110.45
INSECTS: 4 / 3 = 1.33

VIDEO ATTRIBUTION:

[idoitstanding]

They served wagyu beef at Davos they're definitely not leading by example

That's all you need to know

[DialTransmition]

Strange how in all of these comparisons, they always compare it to beef cattle, and only beef production. There's never talk about other livestock, no talk about milk or eggs, which are both incredible efficent sources of protein, and no talk about other byproducts like fertilizer, leather, bonemeal etc. No, it's always just focus on the actual beef production of cows. It's almost like this is the only way they can make their number and theories seem beliveble...

[anonperson]

There's a researcher at my university who is feeding mealworms on oceanic plastic waste and wants to use them as chicken feed and even human food. I asked her if she has looked into the presence of plastic and microplastics in the mealworms and she looked at me completely blankly and rambled without answering the question.

[What-ezim]

Your also forgetting that the protien in bugs are not as easily absorbed in human digestive tracts because the majority of the protien is chitlin which has very low absorption rates

[MogofWar]

I can already tell you. Having tried to farm meal worms, the math behind them taking less feed, water, land, to produce goes out the window if you are actually breeding them.

[jamesrey]

This saying goes for everything in life. "You deserve what you tolerate"

[jeremyfirth]

A lot of bugs carry parasites that are harmful for humans, and that survive cooking processes (eggs). It's not just irrational disgust that keeps us from eating bugs.

[MayorMcC]

chickens dont get enough credit for being genetically based

[JA-jxhk]

Also, insect protein has much less bioavailability as our bodies aren’t designed to digest insect protein. Not to mention that are digestive system can’t digest chitin too well. Eating bugs would cause a whole host of digestive issues and make people weaker due to a functionally lower protein diet.

[HVeTz]

You also need to consider digestibility of the protein, DIAAS score is the most accurate model we have.
Animal products have DIAAS score of over 100, excellent utilization. Soy has just less than 100 and pea protein around 80.
According to an article I found, which I cannot share in these comments because Youtube sucks, two cricket species and mealworms have DIAAS of over 75, so they are poorly utilized in comparison.
This inflates the protein comparisons used in the video sources in favor of insects.

[themetadaemon]

Another issue with bugs is the that many of them have very high levels of histamine. A few crickets won't be a problem for most people, but a meal that yields enough protein to be useful will generally sicken a high portion of the population.

See: Histamine poisoning from insect consumption: an outbreak investigation from Thailand

Summon Chomchai 1 2, Chulathida Chomchai 2 3

[Sworddeath]

I'm glad you eventually went into the fact that no part of a cow goes to waste. When you said that only 40% of a cow is edible then didn't initially mention for quite a few minutes I thought you weren't going to mention it. The remaining parts of the cow are just as important to our society as the meat itself.

[biketrailing]

Bugs are an effective way at completely centralizing the food chain in the hands of a very small group of ultra-rich technocrats. Conventional cattle-ranching can be done on huge swaths of land in the open and involve a lot of working class labor. As mentioned in your video, bug farming can be automated and set up in city warehouses - another way to completely exclude rural folk from the economy.

[aidangittings]

I dont think they understand that there’s people in the world who simply don’t GAF about the methane and CO2 in the environment. There’s plenty of research even saying that it doesn’t even matter. It’s all about money for them, they don’t care about the environment.

[jarcher]

I screwed up guys. I already ate the bugs. When I was a boy in rural Texas 20 years ago, my brothers and I caught a lot of grasshoppers (not crickets). Our mom battered and deep fried them. They tasted like shit.

[VictorianTimeTraveler]

Every year I work part-time on a ranch.
Taking care of cattle is hard, physically demanding, sometimes dangerous and it is so fulfilling.
It is my favorite job and I want to be able to do it full time one day.

[Azf]

I always felt the whole statement of eating bugs in the future was loaded. Even being as uneducated about the topic as I am, I concluded that, even if we were to switch over, it would essentially replace, not fix. Gives me the same kind of vibe when people dismiss nuclear energy as another clean energy source because of a bunch of isolated statistics and incidents.

[tookysmag]

To the closing question of "why is it being pushed" I have a theory that it's a result of what Nate Hagen's refers to as "Energy Blindness", that culturally we do not acknowledge the real energy cost of things because non-renewable fossil fuels are currently so cheap. The idea of bug farming is a sort of doubling down on this ideology - replacing cattle who are fed largely on solar energy via environmentally available grass with insects who are sedentary in plastic bins and fed via energy hungry machines and large scale distribution systems that are "cheaper" but predicated entirely on the existing fossil fuel infrastructure.

[John_Smith]

i lived in cambodia for three years. seeing the display cases full of bug offerings in even the most state of the art modern malls in phnom penh was something i never got used to lol.

[HeShoeTooBig]

who eats bugs? lizards? who keeps pushing bugs as the new main food source? lizard people.
I done blew this case wide open